Neighbour waking us at 4.50

[soughsigh]

My neighbour has a really noisy car. He usually leaves for work at around 6.15 and wakes us all up then. For the last 4 years, we haven't said anything (especially since the toddler has been struggling with early starts for the last year so we're all up before then anyway). I don't know if it wakes any of the other neighbours up, our bedroom is quite close to their drive but you'd think it would wake the other side up too.

This morning be left for work at 4.50. It's really cold so he spent a few minutes revving the engine to warm it up faster. Needless to say he woke the whole house, and for once the toddler hadn't woken at 4.30.

Do I knock on the door and politely ask if he could take his wife's car to work if he starts before 6? She doesn't use it to get to work, it usually sits on the driveway during the day.

I'm genuinely torn here.
yabu - no don't say anything
Yunbu - your neighbour shouldn't be waking everyone before 5

Sorry if I can't reply quickly, I have a wide awake toddler to deal with.

We have a guy like this in our close, massive exhaust pipe on his pride and joy. So so loud.

@sarapq2

Trouble is that 5am is toward the end of a sleep. For many people, especially children, 5am is a “get woken up and can’t get back to sleep time”. So what you say about noise isn’t really valid here. If it happens once or twice it’s no big deal, but being woken at 5am every day is potentiallly problematic.

We have a neighbour that leaves very early for work and wakes us up. He’s NHS. I wouldn’t dream of telling him it disturbed us as we have young children and I’m sure we disturb them SO much more, all through the day and night!

You can't complain about a noise that wakes you up when it is normal every day. You get to go back to sleep and if you can't, that's not his fault.

It's noise that goes on for hours that is a nuisance that deserved mentioning.

This is one of those things it's perfectly reasonable to be annoyed about but for which there aren't really any reasonable solutions. You can't suggest he use someone else's car. And if he has to get up and leave early for work, he has to get up and leave early for work. It's definitely worth mentioning to him as I doubt he wants to cause you an inconvenience and if there's a solution that works for him and reduces the annoyance for you that's great, but at the end of the day he's not going to put your sleep above his job, is he?

Good neighbours are a treasure, as I have found over this past year. I have 2 neighbours who have been wonderful , but over the last 7 years we have put up with a hugely noisy motorbike being worked on, revving and backfiring, power tools being used when we were trying to sit out in our garden, and on the other side two little dogs that had been rescued from horrendous conditions that would howl bark and cry for about an hour whenever the neighbour left for work, or to go to the shops or to a friend. She comes home from work and walks them in her lunch break, so that starts them again in the afternoon. At times I've lost patience and longed for some peace, but have never complained, and since Covid I'm very glad, because these neighbours have paid back these inconveniences with their kindness and consideration over and over again. If this is all your neighbours do to annoy you, @soughsigh , I would just put up with it. It isn't worth the bad feeling.

It won’t be icy/snowy for long. Try to have a nap today. He could potentially have been a bit more considerate not revving but you don’t know full circumstances. I’d say it’s something you can mention in passing in the summer as a joke or similar. Light hearted. Getting on well with my neighbours is an absolute must. It could quickly turn ugly and who has got time for petty fights.

People are allowed to go to work when they have to. Really the timing is none of your business.

It is very unfortunate that your neighbour has to leave to so early for work, but it can't be helped. I bet he would rather be able to leave later.

At this time of year in particular cars need scraped (very noisy) and started and run to clear windows. You are fortunate to live in a (usually) quiet area. Accept the inconvenience with grace.

It's the price you have to pay for living close to other people. If you live in a town or village, somebody nearby will be going to work early in the morning, and someone else will be up until 1am. If you want silence, move to the countryside.

All these people who don't like noise... Are you sure you don't do anything that makes noise to annoy people ever

DH has a work van... Sets off 2.30am on a Monday morning... Be grateful you don't live near us... However none of our neighbours have complained... In fact one said on the odd occasion she has heard it she's thought more along the lines of 'I'd hate to have to set off so early'

Noise is part of life I'm afraid unless you live in a quiet more rural area with no neighbours.

Sorry YABU about noise of people going to work in morning, the world can’t stop because you have a sleeping baby.

However, you can take comfort from the fact that revving a cold engine it warm it up is very stupid and damages the engine. His car will end up needing to be repaired sooner than usual. Maybe a mechanic will tell him the error of his ways.

@81Byerley

Good neighbours are a treasure, as I have found over this past year. I have 2 neighbours who have been wonderful , but over the last 7 years we have put up with a hugely noisy motorbike being worked on, revving and backfiring, power tools being used when we were trying to sit out in our garden, and on the other side two little dogs that had been rescued from horrendous conditions that would howl bark and cry for about an hour whenever the neighbour left for work, or to go to the shops or to a friend. She comes home from work and walks them in her lunch break, so that starts them again in the afternoon. At times I've lost patience and longed for some peace, but have never complained, and since Covid I'm very glad, because these neighbours have paid back these inconveniences with their kindness and consideration over and over again. If this is all your neighbours do to annoy you, *@soughsigh* , I would just put up with it. It isn't worth the bad feeling.

That's a great post, @81Byerley, I've got wonderful neighbours with two noisy children and am forever throwing footballs back . I am so grateful to them throughout lockdown! Good neighbours are to be treasured.

It's just one of those things you need to suck up sadly. I live on a street where all the neighbours kids have turned into that age where they have boyfriends picking them up at all hours in their cars (pre lockdown). They sit eating dunkin doughnuts playing their radios in the parking bay which is across from my house, rather on their own drives. They now have cars themselves, so they're all going out to work, along with their parents, anytime from 5-8am. If they're in bed, they have me going to work at 7am. So I have nighttime and early morning noise. Do I complain? No? Because I've two kids myself and one day they'll be doing the same and we won't have moved house. People going to work is just everyday noise sadly. It could be worse.

Sadly I have to rev my current (modern) car to get the windscreen to demist. Not constantly, but a bit. It still takes ages to do. Easily over 5 mins. I've never had a car this bad. Last car I didn't have to rev.

Thats a tough one and I do have sympathy for you op, but no you cant ask him to drive a different car. I would maybe drop it into conversation next time you see him or his wife, maybe he might be a little more aware then. But realistically I'm not sure theres much you can do.

One of my neighbours has some kind of fancy Jag with a huge exhaust.

It’s so loud every time he starts it up. I’ve been walking the dog in the fields quite a distance away and have heard it start up it’s that loud

He’s quite considerate with it and doesn’t rev it or anything and he doesn’t start work at some ungodly hour so I’ve never been woken up by it.

I used to live in a right crap hole of an area
Fights , loud music , police were always in the vicinity not to mention the creepy neighbours who watch me !
Least your neighbours are hard working give me that any day than the above.
I understand the getting kids to sleep part if it's a major issue I'd say something but it's something that can't be helped .

It is a bit rubbish but it's life. I leave at 2:30an and try to be quiet but if I need to de_ice the car or something I do.
Next door have a really sensitive motion sensor and walking out of the front door sets it off so I hope it doesn't wake anyone but if it does, nothing I can do. I have to go to work..
The fact you can't go back to sleep isn't his problem. Can you use ear plugs?

Sorry OP, but YABVU and very precious. People need to work, and unfortunately their working hours do not always match everyone else's lifestyle. It's unfortunate for you, but it's not your neighbour's fault, work is a normal and necessary part of life. (And you definitely shouldn't tell him which car he should drive.)

@WeAllHaveWings

If it is one of those modified ridiculously loud exhausts I would speak to him, tell him the impact it is having and ask him to fix the problem (how he does that is up to him, not up to you to suggest how)

If he didn't fix it I would be reporting to police (they can warned/fined for modified excessively loud exhausts) and the council.

This^ There are things you can do. We had a neighbour with 2 x Imprezas with ridiculous after market exhausts. Roared in and out of a pretty narrow terrace street at all hours, revving the engine. Several neighbours had a conversation with him, including me, asked him politely if he would mind just driving it normally until out of the street as it was disturbing people. He carried on, then a few weeks later both cars had new exhausts fitted. One of the other neighbours (who was friendly with the driver,) told me several neighbours had logged a complaint online with 101 and the police had contacted the driver asking him to modify the exhausts back to factory standard and that the cars had been 'tagged' on the police database as having illegal exhausts, so he was likely to be pulled over regularly. I'm not suggesting you go to this extreme, but having a word with your neighbour and letting him know its disturbing you would be a better first step. I'm guessing people who haven't experienced a 90+ decibel exhaust, rattling their double glazing (and that's measured inside the house with all the windows closed,) at 1.00am, for months, really understand how much of an impact it can have.

What's he got, cherry bombs on his Ford Transit ?.

Is it revving or just leaving it idling to remove fogging from the windscreen whilst he scrapes? We have an neighbour who loves to rev the guts out of his engine every time he climbs in or before he turns the engine off. I actually think he gets off on it. A neighbour commented the other day on the village Facebook wondering where he could get a car he needs to rev the guts out of as his only starts and stops with normal noise...it’s stopped for now. He did get a shock at 5am when he pulled up and sat revving. I ran to the bedroom window and as he climbed out I called out ‘you woke me up, please don’t rev your car at unsociable hours!’ Wee idiot!

Does tour child make noise that disturbs them? Tit for tat!

Turn over and be glad you don’t have to be out there at that time of the morning and in the freezing weather.

Invest in soundproof windows. Don't go to your neighbour with this, you'll just piss him off, and if he's petty he'll just rev the engine even more.